Fun with Picasa

When we set up Jimmy's Blog we also set him up with Picasa for managing and uploading his photos. Well, of course we did! We are Picasa evangelists after all. We showed him a few things about how to use the program, then we said, "What we'd really like to do is give you our Picasa seminar - then we'd know we covered all the basics." Jimmy said, "I'll bet I know a couple other people who'd like to see that seminar too." So, he spread the word and we gave our seminar last night. We set up our projector and screen in Jimmy's living room and 10 other folks showed up. Great fun! No one else had heard of Picasa before and they all take lots of digital photos. Believe it or not, we didn't take any pictures of the seminar. :-( So, I'll show you a couple other photos I took yesterday and how I edited them with Picasa. We took a nice walk on the beach and I got 'artsy-fartsy' with my camera. Heres a photo of my foot in the surf: Using Picasa, I made a few changes: 1. I cropped the photo closer to my foot (click on 'crop', drag the cropped area, click Apply) 2. I clicked on "I'm Feeling Lucky" Picasa's one-step color and contrast correction (1 click) 3. I clicked on 'sharpen' (I do this to 90% of all my photos - in fact I use Picasa's 'Batch Edit' feature to do this to all of them at once) Here' s the results: Then, I took this photo of Odie trotting along next to Jim's feet: In Picasa: 1. Crop (click on 'Crop', drag cropped area, click Apply) 2. Tint (click on Tint, select color, click 'Apply') to give it that walking-at-night-in-the-moonlight effect. 3. Increased shadow (drag shadow slider to the right) 4. Soft Focus (click 'Soft Focus', drag slider to smallest, click Apply) for blurry/dreamy effect I guess I should call these 'artsy-footsy'?! Then, there's this shot of the waves hitting the jetty: With Picasa: 1. Straighten (click on Straighten, drag the slider so the horizon matches up with the horizontal grid, click Apply) 2. Crop 3. Black and White (click on 'Black and White') 4. Sharpen. I clicked 'sharpen' twice for this one - each time you click, it sharpens more. And, the *best* part is that Picasa doesn't touch my original. I can play around with the effects as long as I like - then I can change my mind and just 'undo'. To learn more, check out my video tutorials on Picasa. The one called "Examples of Editing Photos, Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects" shows the steps I did to create the photos above. 8/11/09 note: I have a whole new website now ... www.picasatutorials.com

Home Improvement

Sometimes I'm just flabergasted at how things work out just like they were planned! It's a good thing we left our home at the shop the other day: And, just in case you're wondering what tipped us off on the need for repairs ... here's a photo of our front tire. Notice the wear: So - we left the motorhome at the shop on Monday, and it was Tuesday that the construction crew decided to start work on putting a new roof on Jimmy's house. The motorhome would *definitely* have been in the way. Jim was fascinated to watch this guy using radio-controls to work the crane. There's no-one in the cab - it's all done from these controls on his belt. Geee - maybe all those hours playing video games can pay off huh? Meanwhile, Odie's happy wherever he can find a patch of sun. So, the new roof was completed and we all went out to a nice dinner to celebrate, and to use the nice gift certificate from Jimmy's neighbors as a thank you for rescuing their boat. Here's a photo of the 3 of us as dressed up as we get! And ... speaking of how things seem to work out well in our lives ... the day after work was completed on Jimmy's roof ... and our motorhome was back in place ... it started raining. And, it hasn't stopped! Flooding is the order of the day, but we're cozy and dry in our house-with-a-new-roof and motorhome-with-new-balljoints-and-tires. and ... we were planning on leaving tomorrow, but it just doesn't feel right. Too wet - too much left to do. So, we're here for yet another week, then it's on to visit Pru (who we met in Fiji) in Solomon's Island, Maryland. And on to Texas.

Homeless

We took the motorhome to a Ford dealer today to get it checked out. We've been hearing some grinding noises and Jim noticed uneven wear on the front tires. Ouch. What they found is a need for new ball joints and two new front tires. There goes one RV unit ($1,000) Well, we haven't had any maintenance expenses in a while. And, I kinda liked that. I'm glad we're able to get it done before getting back on the road though. You don't want the front end coming apart on the highway. Staying here as long as we have (3+ weeks) means we've been able to take care of some necessary tasks. We've had 3 mail deliveries, got Odie groomed, motorhome maintenance, motorhome rearrangement (more about that later) and I got in the local clinic for my annual checkup. Meanwhile, our home is in the shop. Luckily, Jimmy has a few spare bedrooms, so we're perfectly comfortable. And, we got my computer out and brought it into the house. We should have the motorhome back sometime tomorrow. I finally put together a video from when Jim and I went 'Tubing'. Jimmy's friend Rob took the video while Jimmy ran the boat.

Summer at the Shore

John has been friends with Jimmy since the first grade. They grew up in Baltimore. This Sea-Lyon house started out as a summer house where Jimmy's family and lots of friends would escape the summer heat and have fun at the shore. Now, Jimmy is here year-round, but friends from Baltimore still visit during the summer. The only difference is now they bring their kids! This same boat has been pulling skiers, wakeboards, and now 'tubes' since 1973! Here's the kids, Amy and Gwen: But, here's the real kids, John and Liz Then there's 'crabbin' And simple walks on the beach. Talking to the clams. Can you blame us for staying a week longer than we'd planned? For more photos, visit Sea-Lyon.com It's also been wonderful to get to know Jimmy's friends. They work in a 4-generation family business wholesaling flowers in Baltimore. *Four* generations! The business was started by John's grandfather in 1918. I told them they need write a book. I'd like to read it!

Odie on the Couch

You know that this *is* Odie's motorhome, right? After all, we are Odie's Roadies. He owns the place. He is allowed anywhere except the bed. And, if it were up to me, he'd probably be allowed there. But, Jim said no. And, I have discovered he was right. There are times that Odie gets wet and maybe even muddy. You don't want him to jump on the bed in that condition! But, the couch. That's his home. We actually took out the couch when we first got the RV to make way for the filing cabinets and my computer workstation. But the little bit of couch-like space that is left is definitely Odie's home. He's discovered that this is one place he won't get accidentally stepped on. When he's in someone else's house he automatically assumes that their couches are fair game as well. Usually it's not a problem - he's a pretty clean little guy - but, since we're staying here for a while and it was very wet and rainy, we decided to train him to stay off the couches. This was not going to be easy. He believes he has a right to lay on a couch. He would jump up and we would push him off onto the floor. He'd jump up again with no comprehension why we just pushed him off. We'd push him off again. He'd look at us as if to say, "Stop that!" Like we were the ones that didn't understand. He wanted to get on the couch. When we started catching him in mid-leap and swatting him back down like a tennis ball, he started to get the message. "Oh, you don't want me on the couch. Is that why you brought my bed in here?" He started lying in his bed and didn't get back on the couch! Whaddaya know, you *can* teach an old dog new tricks. I was so proud! He is my perfect poodle! We'd see him eyeing the couch longingly and all we had to do was say "No!" and he'd slink off to his bed. What a good boy! Yesterday we got Odie groomed. So, not only was he my "Perfect Poodle", but he also looked and smelled nice. We got home and fixed some lunch. I was just looking around the room and was shocked to see my perfect-poodle-who-didn't-get-on-couches sleeping as content as could be. on the couch I shouted at him, expecting an obedient, "oops, sorry" and an immediate jump down from the couch. It didn't happen. Oh well, maybe he's not as smart as I thought. Jim must be right, he's just a "Practically Perfect Poodle". He did reluctantly get down from the couch, but his look was not obedient, it was more disgusted. He rolled his eyes and grumbled, "Come on ... I know you only wanted me off the couch because I'd get it dirty. I'm clean now dummy!" p.s. you can check out Odie's Blog to see what he thinks about it.